Disputed Belarus Election Leads to Clashes
Jamie Kirchick reports:
MINSK -- Authorities in Belarus say President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has won a landslide reelection victory to a fourth term, in an election marred by the detention of opposition candidates and clashes between police and demonstrators.
The Central Election Commission has reported official results saying that the authoritarian Lukashenka, who has ruled the former Soviet republic since 1994, won the December 19 election in the first round with 79.67 percent of the vote.
Earlier, reports said at least three opposition candidates who ran against Lukashenka were detained by authorities, and unconfirmed reports said a fourth candidate, Uladzimir Neklyayev, was removed by security personnel from a hospital where he been taken for treatment of injuries suffered in clashes with police.
The opposition protest, accusing the authorities of engineering a massive electoral fraud in support of Lukashenka, briefly grew to several tens of thousands of people, some of whom tried to storm the main government building, breaking windows and glass doors.
Anti-riot police repelled the protesters, and dozens of people were reported injured in violent clashes. By late in the evening, police had cleared Independence Square in central Minsk of all protesters.
